After our India adventures, it felt just a little too early to return to (cold, grey) Austria and as I was already in Asia, I decided to do a little stop on the way home. As I hadn’t been scuba diving for a few years, the Maldives sounded very appealing. I had done a liveaboard here in 2018, but this time I knew I had to work and therefore needed to stay on an island rather than on a boat where WiFi is not that reliable. A quick research got me set on the Southern island of Fuvahmulah, promising 100% guarantee on diving with tiger sharks. Tiger sharks, one of the main species of shark that was still missing in my ‚collection‘! So I booked myself a diving and accommodation package for a week’s stay, diving in the mornings and working in the afternoons and evenings. And of course, exploring some of the quite little island in between!
I was lucky to meet some really nice buddies to dive with and to explore the island with. Together, we did 6 tiger shark dives and 8 other dives along the reef. During the other dives, we were not as lucky and only faintly saw a thresher shark at one point. However, there were plenty of reef sharks, moray eels, turtles and just overall lots of beautiful schools of fish and healthy looking reefs!
The shark dives were the highlight of course. There is a feeding station where dive masters hide tuna heads underneath some rocks which the sharks will then smell and start circling around and search for them. Sometimes, they were then really digging into the rocks, picking them up and even accidentally swallowing some (and spitting them out again). In the end, they always found the tuna of course! Really cool to watch and we were able to get real close. My favourite dive was one of the shark dives where we followed the reef a bit afterwards and I went really deep with my buddy. Down there, we saw the sharks coming up from the bottom and at one point some were circling around us. Super cool!
Overall it was a great week and my dive/work schedule worked out pretty well. It’s definitely something I can imagine doing more often – although unfortunately all my bucket list diving destinations are liveaboard-based now. Guess I gotta wait for better WiFi on the boats! For now, here are some more photos.
Since I’ve become a digital nomad, I have lived in lots of beautiful places and I have been able to appreciate life in a completely different way. Sometimes though, it can feel like living two lives at the same time – being available for my clients and delivering on my projects, and hanging out with mostly tourists engaging in typical tourist activities. This sometimes makes me feel as if I’m rushing from the one to the other and can get a bit exhausting at times. So it is nice to actually take time off work sometimes!
When I planned my 2 weeks in India, I knew this was going to be one of these holiday periods. The plan was to finally meet up with Kesh again and to also spend some time with his family at a wedding. So I wanted to make sure to have enough time to enjoy and not having to keep work tasks in my head. So, India. First stop: Delhi. I had been here about five years ago and ticked off all the main tourist sights of the city. So this time, we took it slow and just walked around Chandni Chowk and Old Delhi a lot, soaking up the chaos around us taking in the full sensory overload that India provides you with. It was so much fun to get lost in the chaos of the little streets with anything and everything imaginable (and unimaginable) happening around you. Loved Delhi first time around, and still do!
From Delhi, we hopped onto a flight to Varanasi, where the wedding took place. It was interesting to participate in all the different elements and ceremonies of the wedding and I wore a saree for the first time! My favourite outfit was the lengha though, that I bought in Delhi. Everything is so beautifully colourful at Indian weddings, I love it!
Next to the wedding, we actually had lots of free time to explore Varanasi, which for us meant mainly walking along the ghats and taking in the special atmosphere along the river Ganges. I had wanted to visit Varanasi for such a long time, so it was incredible to finally be walking long the river and to witness all sorts of different ceremonies and the cremation of dead bodies (I will forever be haunted by that image of feet sticking out of a fire…) – an equally fascinating, shocking and kind of repulsive thing to observe. One of those moments that I will forever remember.
For the rest, our days were filled with me trying to practice Hindi with random chai vendors, drinking lots of chai and eating lots of delicious food. Varanasi was much more relaxed and cleaner than I had expected – I really liked the city!
After Varanasi, our next stop was Mumbai. As we both felt a bit sick though, we didn’t end up seeing a lot which was fine by me as again I had been to Mumbai before and seen all the main attractions. So after some more family time, we hopped onto another flight – destination: Amritsar. Amritsar… the city of the Sikh, located in the Northwest of India, close to the boarder of Pakistan. Another one that had been on my „India bucket list“ for a while, and so it had been on Kesh’s. Originally, we had planned to travel to a climbing place for a bit, however, trains were fully booked. The decision for an alternative stop was easy though and we did not regret it!
*The* main attraction of Amritsar is the Golden Temple, which we visited on multiple occasions and at different times of the day so that we got to see the temple at night in all its shiny golden glory, but also in the morning and day time hours. We also went for a free meal in the temple (the „langar“) twice, which was really nice food. It is crazy that it is provided every day for so many people. I’d love to get insight into the planning and logistics behind that!
The other thing to do when in Amritsar, is to visit the Wagah border between India and Pakistan where every afternoon a border ceremony takes place. I didn’t read up a lot on it beforehand, so didn’t exactly know what to expect. It ended up being one big party with the guys from the military acting as MCs, getting the crowd fired up and a little marching up and down of the military. The best part of the whole ceremony was when all women were invited to get into the „arena“. I didn’t really know why and what was going to happen next, but decided to join nonetheless. I was the only tourist and what happened next was dancing! Basically just randomly partying with all the Indian women around me. No clue why this was part of the border ceremony, but it was so much fun! So…who cares.
From Chiang Mai, I took a flight South to Krabi. I was more than ready for some more climbing, beautiful beaches and to find a place where I could settle for at least a month. It was fun to take a boat to Railay and remember the time in 2007 when I did that trip as a day trip from Krabi together with my sister. I didn’t quite remember HOW stunning the place was though. Arriving by longtail boat at Railay East, with blue water, blue skies and beautiful limestone cliffs on both sides, I felt very fortunate to have picked this place as my next stop.
I spent the first couple of hours checking out about 80% of the accommodation options available in Railay to find the best deal for myself. Low tourist numbers due to corona helped me to score a really good long-stay deal at Railay Princess Resort which was absolutely amazing! The room had the best views of anything that I saw in Railay, it got cleaned every day and included a breakfast buffet. Yes, I got spoiled and yes, it was hard to leave in the end. Perks included monkeys playing on my balcony every now and then and a roof-top pool. Not too bad!
But now on to the climbing, which was obviously the main reason I came to Railay. While I did have a lot of work during my time in Railay, I usually managed to get out on the rock 2-3 times / week. I would have preferred more, but that’s complaining on a high level. I met lots of amazing people and climbing partners during my 7-week-stay. I managed to climb some really cool routes, practiced my rappelling skills and watched the sunset on Railay West beach almost every day.
Some of my favourite crags/routes were:
Thaiwand Wall – the crag with the best views
Missing Snow 6b+ and Beauty & the Beast 6c – my favourite routes
Humanality 6b+ – the most recommended multi-pitch, and rightly so with some beautiful pitches, a scary crux pitch and a fun rappel into Freedom Bar afterwards (with a well-deserved cold beer)
Don’t Grab the Krabi 7a+ – one of the only 7a/+ that has ever appealed to me to project. I didn’t managed to get on it as many times as I would have needed to send it though unfortunately, but it is definitely the 7a(+) that seemed the most achievable to me so far.
Of course, there was much more to my time in Railay and these are only some of the many highlights. I would definitely like to return one day with a bit less work and more time for climbing.
After 7 weeks, I decided that it was time to move on and spend the rest of my time in Thailand on Koh Tao. I had been to Koh Tao twice already (in 2010 to do my open water and in 2013 when I was on my first round the world trip), but both times I had actually not managed to see a lot of the island. The first trip was focussed on diving and it was pouring rain the whole week with flooding. During my second time on Koh Tao, I was a bit tired from travelling and preferred to take it slow for a few days. This time I had booked a hotel for my 1 month stay on Sairee beach because I felt too lazy to walk around and compare prices. I regretted my decision afterwards as the hotel was nothing special and overpriced for what it was. But hey… you can’t always take the right decision, right!? At least Sairee beach was the perfect central location and good for sunsets.
My plan for Koh Tao was to still work a lot (unfortunately) and to go bouldering and maybe sport climbing. I had heard good things about the bouldering on Koh Tao and vague stuff about some bolted routes. If nothing would work out, I would just go scuba diving a lot. In the end, I did not go on a single dive and while I did go climbing and bouldering quite a bit, my main activities ended up being flying trapeze and aerial silks!
I had heard about the flying trapeze on Koh Tao from a climbing buddy in Railay and had thought about it more as a once-in-a-lifetime kind of activity. Never did I expect to have so much fun and I did not know they also offered aerial silks which I had wanted to try for a while. Always good to keep your plans flexible!
My highlights of Koh Tao were definitely my new skills on the trapeze and aerial silks that I acquired over the course of the month. I also really enjoyed the bouldering though. It was my first time bouldering outdoors and I loved it! Definitely something I would love to do more in the future.
The climbing was also great. First time on granite with some slabs, some chimneys and just a totally different feel than the limestone in Railay and Tonsai. My favourite crags were Big Brother Slab and Jansom Bay which I only got to visit once unfortunately as my climbing partners were more interested in other crags. The most beautiful route on the island (for me) is Grunt Force 6b, the most interesting one Leg Day 6a+ (both Jansom Bay) and I also found Bisou 7a+ at Golden View a route that would have been worth projecting. Again, I did not have enough time, I only got on it once on toprope to feel it out.
I liked that Koh Tao was a lot bigger than Railay and offered way more different activities and restaurant options. I enjoyed having my own scooter again, cruising around and exploring beaches, going for a snorkel here and there. And I loved getting into trapeze and aerial silks. Overall, a great way to finish my stay in Thailand!
Just Booked A Trip 